DHARAMSHALA, July 25: Gyaincain (Tib. Gyaltsen) Norbu, the China appointed 11th Panchen Lama, on a visit to Tibet made pointed remarks against Tibetans who do not â€œprotectâ€ social stability, declaring them â€œunfit to be called man of religion.â€

According to Chinaâ€™s official mouthpiece Xinhua, Norbu, who is on a rare visit to Lhasa, the restive capital of Tibet, met with senior party cadres and government officials.

"If a person does not protect social stability, he is not fit to be called a man of religion," Xinhua quoted him as saying.

His remarks come at a time when 45 Tibetans have set themselves on fire in a resilient act of protest against Chinese rule, demanding the return of exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and freedom in Tibet.

A majority of the self-immolators have been nuns, monks or former monks.

The elected head of the Tibetan people, Kalon Tripa Dr Lobsang Sangay has called the self-immolations â€œpolitical actionâ€ and blamed Chinaâ€™s failed policies in Tibet - founded on â€œpolitical oppression, social marginalisation, cultural assimilation and environmental destructionâ€ - as root causes of the protests.

â€œTo understand these acts, it is crucial to know that within China, there is no room for freedom of speech and conventional forms of protest. A participant in a simple demonstration runs a high risk of arrest, torture and even death,â€ Dr Sangay wrote for the Washington Post this month.

â€œWere the Chinese government to offer to resolve the issue of Tibet peacefully through dialogue, the self-immolations would end immediately.â€

Norbu, 22, commonly referred to as the â€œFakeâ€ Panchen by Tibetans, was handpicked by the Chinese government over Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, a six-year old boy recognised by the Dalai Lama as the reincarnation of the Xth Panchen Lama in 1995. Despite repeated international pressure, Beijing has refrained from disclosing the well being and whereabouts of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima and his parents for the last 17 years.

Norbu currently serves as the vice president of the Buddhist Association of China and a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the country's top political advisory body.

Last year, following widespread resentment from local Tibetans, he had to cancel a long-planned trip to Labrang monastery in Sangchu county in eastern Tibet.

Threats of pay-cuts and extermination from jobs had failed to deter local Tibetan officials from complying with a Chinese government decree to prepare a grand reception for Norbu.